Finland Exchange

20 Feb 2013

St. Andrew's 'Talk About Youth' programme are currently engaged in a Youth Exchange Programme that allows young people from the area to travel and experience cultures in other European countires.

Youth Exchanges bring together groups of young people from two or more countries, providing them with an opportunity to meet and learn about different countries and cultures.  The Youth in Action Programme provides funding for Youth Exchanges for 13-25 year olds together with their youth leaders, for exchanges between 6 and 21 days. 

Youth Exchanges involve partnerships between two (bi-lateral), three (tri-lateral) or more countries (multilateral). These exchanges must have a good balance of learning and fun activities, enabling the group to explore a chosen theme through non formal learning.

Our participants took part in an exchnage with Finland, and started their trip on the 1st January 2013. We flew first to Copenhagen and the next day we started our journey to Helsinki in Finland. From there the group took a train to Kookola. The group stayed in lovely cottages in the area and prepared to meet our Finnish hosts. The third group involved in our tri-lateral exchange is Slovenia, who arrived the following day.

In all, our group spent seven wonderful days in the snow taking part in some amazing activities such as snowboarding, skiing and team building games. We were also treated to traditional Finnish country nights. We also took part in a traditional Irish night which was a great success. The exchange was a great success and a wonderful experience for all that took part. We look forward to maintaining links with our Finnish and Slovenian friends throughout the year. It was a great experience for all that were there.

 

 leargasyouth in action programme